![]() ![]() Quiver trees are crowned by a dense lollipop of forked branches, each tipped by a rosette of spiky leaves. If you find a composition that strikes a chord it’s worth checking it out several times as the light changes shooting into the light as well as with the light behind you. You can always come back after scoping the place out. ![]() Resist it and check out the trees further in. There’s a strong temptation to start at the first stand of trees you see. Arrive well ahead of the best light and walk around before you settle on your first composition. With so many surreal trees clustered together – the site is a national monument – the biggest challenge is choosing where to start photographing since there are so many possibilities vying for your attention. A tripod is also essential, unless you are prepared to shoot at very high ISO because some of the best shots to be had are at twilight when the soft, diffuse light produces a lovely ethereal effect. Short zooms are the order of the day here either for portraits of a single tree or for wider scenics of the forest. ![]() If you’re lucky the ever-changing cloud formations of the summer can make up for the small window of good photographic light. The trade off is the sky can be less interesting, with little or no cloud. Visit from April onwards into the winter and the lower sun is a lot more generous. In the Southern Hemisphere’s summer months when we visited, the best of the evening golden light lasts barely an hour. It’s one of those places where the longer you spend photographing, the more images suggest themselves, and in the golden light at dusk or dawn it’s sheer magic. We spent two nights on location there last month, but could happily have spent a week. We’ve been there numerous times, always finding something new to point our cameras at. The best known and most accessible quiver tree forest lies on a farm a few kilometres outside Keetmanshoop, a work-a-day town, 500km south of Namibia’s capital, Windhoek. But in a few special places, they not only survive, but thrive, creating bizarre, beautiful, other-worldly landscapes that beg to be photographed. Sparsely scattered over the Namib desert, quiver trees survive where little else grows. These strange, spiky plants aren’t trees at all, but a type of aloe, and they’re a defining characteristic of the southern Namibian landscape. It’s one of the most striking natural symbols of Namibia, a nation with no shortage of such icons. It’s the quiver tree’s distinctive shape that makes it so photogenic. ![]()
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